The DeFeo Murders and the Amityville Horror - DeFeo Said This on the Witness Stand
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & InterviewsSummary
On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. committed one of the most notorious family murders in American history, killing six members of his family in their home in Amityville, New York. The victims included his parents, two younger brothers, a younger sister, and an older sister, all shot in their beds with a .35 caliber Marlin rifle. Despite the gunfire, no neighbors reported hearing anything unusual that night, raising questions about the circumstances surrounding the murders.
DeFeo's troubled upbringing is highlighted by a history of violence and drug use, as well as a tumultuous relationship with his father. Following the murders, DeFeo initially attempted to deflect blame, suggesting a mob hitman was responsible. However, he ultimately confessed to the killings, claiming they were committed in self-defense. His trial in 1975 concluded with a conviction on six counts of murder, resulting in six consecutive life sentences.
The case gained further notoriety when the house became the setting for the "Amityville Horror" phenomenon, which was popularized by a book and subsequent films. The Lutz family, who moved into the house after the DeFeos, claimed to experience paranormal activity, leading to widespread speculation and debate about the events that transpired there. Over the years, DeFeo's narrative about the murders evolved, with various claims of insanity and shifting blame, but he remained incarcerated until his death in 2021. The Amityville case continues to captivate public interest, raising questions about family dynamics, mental health, and the nature of evil.
Show Notes
Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. shot his parents and four siblings in their beds at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, on November 13, 1974. His mother had warned the cleaning woman that something tragic was coming. His father had ignored a loaded shotgun misfire years earlier. At trial, DeFeo told the jury he killed them all in self-defense and that he was God with a gun in his hand. He spent forty-five years in prison changing the story — blaming his dead sister, inventing a wife, telling a new version with every visitor. Thirteen months after the murders, George and Kathy Lutz moved three children into the house and left after twenty-eight days. The book said A True Story on the cover and sold millions. The movie earned eighty million dollars. Their own lawyer said they had created the story over wine. George trademarked the name and sued one of the children he had moved in. Two of them spoke. Missy, who was five, never has. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #Amityville #RonaldDeFeo #HiddenKillers #DeFeoMurders #AmityvilleHorror #GeorgeLutz #112OceanAvenue #TrueCrime #TrueCrimeDocumentary #ColdCase
More from True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Prosecutors have rested in the Matthew Farwell trial, and police reports say he hit a pole head-on as the FBI investigated. On November 2, 2026, the Idaho Supreme Court hears the Lori Vallow appeal. The crash, he told officers, happened because a deer ran beneath the truck's hood. Farwell has entered a not-guilty plea, and his lawyers say Sandra Birchmore took her own life after he ended things. On October 26, 2026, the medical examiner who ruled Sandra's death a suicide testified she was never once asked if it was suspicious. If convicted, the former patrolmen's union president faces life without parole in federal prison. Lori seeks a new trial, arguing the judge took away her right to the attorney she hired. Defense lawyer and onetime prosecutor Eric Faddis joins Robin Dreeke, a retired agent who ran the FBI counterintelligence behavioral program, to weigh what comes next. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #LoriVallow #TrueCrimeToday #MatthewFarwell #ChadDaybell #FarwellTrial #IdahoSupremeCourt #EricFaddis #RobinDreeke #TrueCrime
The Idaho Supreme Court takes up the Lori Vallow appeal on November 2, 2026, with no deadline for a ruling. The main fight is over a judge removing Mark Means as her lawyer. Means was being paid by Chad Daybell, who was charged alongside Lori in the murders, so the trial judge found Means couldn't represent both. Lori argues the removal violated her right to the attorney she chose, so she wants the case retried. She also asks the court to throw out every Idaho charge over a speedy trial she says she demanded and never got. The state says the wait from her May 2021 charges to an April 2023 trial came from her mental hospital stay, the Boise move she requested, and the case's size. Former FBI counterintelligence behavioral chief Robin Dreeke and Eric Faddis, a prosecutor turned defense attorney, join me on where this goes next. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #LoriVallow #ChadDaybell #TrueCrimeToday #LoriVallowDaybell #IdahoSupremeCourt #LoriVallowAppeal #JJVallow #TyleeRyan #EricFaddis #RobinDreeke
Prosecutors have rested their side of the Matthew Farwell trial. They argued the ex-Stoughton officer killed Sandra Birchmore during her pregnancy and staged her death as a suicide. His plea is not guilty. If convicted, he faces life, and federal prison has no parole. Instead of solitary, the feds put ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin in a unit for ex-cops, ex-gang members and other inmates deemed high-risk. Prosecutors allege a onetime gang leader in that unit stabbed him 22 times. In prison, the saying goes, the two worst things you can be are a cop and a man in a case like Farwell's. Prosecutors say it started when Sandra was 15 and Farwell, then 27, was teaching the police youth program she was in. Former prosecutor turned defense attorney Eric Faddis and ex-FBI behavioral program chief Robin Dreeke weigh what both would mean inside. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #TrueCrimeToday #FarwellTrial #FederalPrison #PrisonLife #StoughtonPolice #EricFaddis #RobinDreeke #TrueCrime
On the defense’s first full day of witnesses, Farwell’s lawyers showed the jury a page Sandra Birchmore wrote in 2017. She’d listed reasons to end her life and reasons not to. Her ex-boyfriend William Kilroy identified something at the bottom of that page as his own handwriting. Kilroy told the jury Sandra was depressed after losing her mother and grandmother, talked about joining her grandmother, and later threatened to kill herself and put him in the note. The chief ME of Massachusetts also testified for the defense. Her office called Sandra’s death a suicide in 2021, then changed the ruling to undetermined in 2026. Prosecutors got Kilroy to agree Sandra was a fighter, resilient, and someone who always pulled through. They pointed out no note was ever found. A broken necklace from Sandra’s grandmother was around her neck in a police photo and never collected by investigators. Farwell faces mandatory life if convicted. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #HiddenKillers #FarwellTrial #TrueCrime #WilliamKilroy #Defense #MedicalExaminer #FederalTrial #Justice
The prosecution has rested in Matthew Farwell's trial, and its witnesses included the Sandra Birchmore medical examiner. Farwell, once a Stoughton detective, pleaded not guilty after the FBI arrested him in August 2024. The DA cited the medical examiner's May 2021 suicide ruling when he didn't bring charges. Under oath on October 26, 2026, she said outside agencies supply her information and that she never got asked if Sandra's death was suspicious. In the last six months of 2020, right before Sandra died, about 20 medical examiners in Massachusetts handled a caseload of more than 3,600. Their own report says most bodies get examined within a day of arriving. Defense lawyer and onetime prosecutor Eric Faddis joins me with Robin Dreeke, retired head of the FBI's behavioral program. We get into what a family can do when one ruling decides whether anyone keeps looking. Listen Anywhere You Get Podcasts: https://pod.link/1655749292 Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod?sub_confirmation=1 Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraBirchmore #MatthewFarwell #TrueCrimeToday #FarwellTrial #MedicalExaminer #DeathInvestigation #EricFaddis #RobinDreeke #Massachusetts #TrueCrime